There's a silence, then.
Homura stares at you, of course -- you'd not expected her to stop, not really. But... it wasn't like this, last time. Sabrina had shown up, and shown you that Homura didn't have to be your enemy... and then Oriko had burned down Sayaka's house right afterwards, and there'd been the hunt. Homura... she'd never really doubted you, then, it seemed like. No, you'd helped her and she'd helped you, enough that whatever concerns you'd had about her had just crumbled away in the face of a rising bond. That was it, you decide: she'd never felt a need to doubt that you would stand with her, back then. That was why you hadn't had this conversation...
But there'd been a time before that, too.
If Sabrina had known of Homura from the get-go, as she's said that she did... Then, since Homura hadn't known Sabrina… If this is who Homura is – who Homura was – it should follow that…
The pieces of that first day click together in rapid succession in your mind. This conversation you're having right now… Sabrina must have had this same conversation with Homura that first day when Homura asked to speak with her privately. And being Sabrina, she would have promptly responded to Homura that of course she was going to fight Walpurgisnacht.
And then Sabrina chose to stay with you. And, well… things. Things. One way or another Homura simply wouldn't have needed to question you like this, you conclude – she was always closer to Sabrina, possibly because of this very conversation, and Sabrina could simply have told her that yes, of course you were going to support her.
Rampant speculation? Certainly. But assuming you've actually gone back in time, Homura must have been this way at some point, and she definitely didn't have this conversation with you.
You blink suddenly, realizing that you've been letting your mind wander instead of focusing on the girl in front of you. Right on time, fortunately, for her to resume. "Who is Sabrina?" she asks.
And what a question it is. It's not something you've ever truly had to answer, except to yourself – really, nobody has ever asked you to explain Sabrina before. Your mouth squiggles a bit; your eyebrows furrow a tad. Mostly, people tend to experience her, and then they tend to remember her afterwards. But, you think you know where to start... even though Sabrina is going to sound impossible to a veteran like Homura who hasn't met her. The ability to cleanse a gem... it's not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of her, but in terms of introductions...
"Madoka and Sayaka found her, dying in a back alley," you begin, "and she made a wish – she wished to control grief. It worked."
Homura rocks slightly at that. "Do you mean–"
You cut her off with what must be a mildly silly smile and a broad motion – you pinch the fingers of your right hand together, point them at your gem, then fling them open and your arm away, as though grief leaving your soul. "She uses it for just about everything. Fighting, transportation… she feels like a witch, at first, but she isn't one. Witches are monsters. Sabrina is anything but."
Homura's hands seize the branch she's sitting on, gripping it roughly as she leans forward towards you. "Is there a limitation? Some sort of…" she trails off, but you're already shaking your head.
"It's the most incredible magic I've ever seen," you reply, smiling at the mere memory – the 'mere' memory of that life-changing moment when Sabrina first pulled grief from your gem – "she can cleanse herself and others at will."
She swallows, then, a hurricane of emotion in a brief flash of a second, and through her eyes you drown with her. In that moment, you look upon the abyss: unsealed by your own words from its warden, a baleful maelstrom that seizes you by your soul and shreds the very life from your body, for while you must succeed, you cannot—
And then, even as your breath seizes in your throat and you cling to the last vestiges of your hopes and dreams, it is gone, and Homura's right hand pulverizes its way through the branch it's clutching, the rest of the wood falling silently to the ground as it separates from the tree without even a crack to be heard.
"You said," she begins, her gaze far multiplied in intensity even without the… whatever that was, "that she would be here on the 28th. Where is she before that?"
You blink. That… that definitely wasn't what you were expecting. You don't even know what you were expecting, but it wasn't that. "I don't – we don't know. She has a very strange case of amnesia – she knows things about people and magic, and I think she has at least a college-level education, but she doesn't remember anything from before Madoka and Sayaka found her."
Homura frowns at that. "Amnesia." she says, as though tasting the word. "Amnesia." The second time she says it, even though the tone is perfectly level you want to say that she's snarling. She considers you for a moment, and then turns to her shield arm and withdraws a pen and paper before turning back to you. "Could you give me a physical description?"
You oblige, slightly confused but trusting. White European, just under 170cm, blue eyes, shoulder-length white hair. White soul gem with gold filigree, magical girl outfit is a blue overcoat and pants with a grey shirt. Her weapon is a warhammer, although she doesn't make much use of it. Speaks perfect Japanese, without so much as an accent… you continue for a small while at her behest, recounting down to the tiniest detail how Sabrina looks to Homura's questioning while her hand flies across the notepad, a formless inkling slowly materializing at the back of your mind…
---------------
You are allowed to vote for one option from each set if you would like to do so. It'll probably work out that way.
[] Try to dissuade Homura from starting a manhunt for your girlfriend.
[] Don't try to dissuade Homura from starting a manhunt for your girlfriend -- it's actually a pretty good idea, you could file a missing persons report...
[] Offer to show her the alley Sabrina was found in. Who knows? There might even be something there.
[] Just tell her where the alley Sabrina was found in is. You totally have things to do other than go look in an alley across town, like... uh...
-[] Write in? (max: 20 words for this topic)
[] Write in? (max: 40 words)
